Microblogging is a perfect way to start building your personal brand

TTAM = things that annoy me, and this is my second TTAM post. Here is my first – turn off automation on social – and please do this, it gets you no benefit. In fact, the first interaction people have with you is negative, as they immediately delete your automated message.

Today’s blog is about people sharing content on any social platform and not writing why they are sharing it. Worse, they cut and paste the title of the article as their comment. The problem is, we can already see the title in the drop-down window, so why double up? Is It laziness? Indifference? Not appreciating what you’re there to do?

Why does this annoy me?

Because you are being present on social media, but you are not participating on social media. You are pushing information out, but you’re not encouraging conversation. You are not taking advantage of building your social presence as someone who delivers value.

If you want to build a personal brand, you need to be focused and work on becoming known for something.

You want people to rely on you as a great resource of knowledge, that’s relevant to us. You do this by sharing quality information that helps us be successful.

You want to be perceived as an expert in your field, and even if you haven’t quite got the courage to blog yet, at least you can microblog by sharing your opinions on the content you do post.

Because it’s lazy sharing information with no insight. We’re all overwhelmed by content, so why aren’t you defining your voice within the flux of content shared, helping us filter through the masses of information flying past?

I personally believe that, by not adding value at every layer of your social media participation, you are not showing respect for us, your audience. You must have a goal to lead us to the best content and over time, we will value you and what you share. If you are consistently sharing good stuff, you become a resource.

But we’ll never know if you don’t tell us why. Personally, I refuse to read anything without an opinion. It really does annoy me that much.

But it’s more than that. I’m not convinced you’ve actually read it when you don’t add an opinion, which is another reason I won’t take a look. I’m looking for vetted information from people I respect. That’s what it’s about.

You know, I’ve mentioned this a few times in the body of past blogs, and guess what? People share these posts without ADDING AN OPINION.

No shortcuts to building a personal brand

I know a lot of people are feeling apprehensive about getting onto social media and building a personal brand. It’s nerve wrecking at the beginning and many are afraid to make a fool of themselves. I understand. That doesn’t go away, but I do it anyway because I know how important and beneficial it is to me personally. That’s why I go on about it. I want everyone to enjoy the benefits that come with making a commitment to doing it.

What should I write?

When you share content you think is awesome – tell people why you think it’s awesome and ask them if they think the same way.

If an article has life changing information in it, tell your audience how you think it will change your life and that you hope it benefits them too.

If something hasn’t been making any sense to you and finally you find a great piece that clarifies something you’ve been struggling with, write hallelujah xyz finally makes sense to me.

It doesn’t matter what you write, it just matters that you write something

This is microblogging, and if you haven’t got the confidence to put yourself out there in a much bigger way, this is a really great place to start. Everything else can come later.

I promise you, in an overwhelmed world, adding an opinion on the information you share will elevate your value to your audience significantly, and it will happen quickly. Helping each other navigate this information-dense world, to find the gold nuggets of information available out there, is what we must commit to doing.

If you want to build your personal brand, have an opinion, encourage participation and engagement, and never ever miss an opportunity to let people know what you stand for. Are we in agreement?

One final thing. If time is used as an excuse, do less and do it better, or don’t be there at all. Personal branding isn’t something you do half arsed. This is you presented to the world online in all of your glory. Be awesome at it.

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I really appreciate it. If you like this, I’d love a comment, a share, or your best inspirational tip? Of course, please feel free to share with your communities, because that’s what this is all about today – sharing and giving to each other. If you like my style and what I talk about, feel free to follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter or on Facebook.

You can follow The Digital Conversationalist on LinkedIn here. The event/workshop showcase page is here, and this is our Facebook group, where we encourage conversation.

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About The Author

Andrea Edwards, The Digital Conversationalist, is a globally award winning B2B communications professional with more than 20 years’ experience from around the globe, including 12 years exclusively in Asia Pacific. A content marketing strategy pioneer, blogger, writer, as well as a social leadership, employee advocacy and personal branding trainer/coach for businesses and professionals – Andrea has a proven talent to communicate with customers, prospects, stakeholders and influencers in a way that resonates deeply and gets results.

2 Comments

I hear what you are saying and I agree when you are sharing others content that you thought was awesome, but when you are advising people that you have new content on your blog or website that content is your opinion so why add something? I say this because I’m not sure if you are referring to sharing others content or your own? I assume your own in order to build your personal brand.

Hi Scott, I am referring to sharing other’s content, but even when I share my own blogs, I tell people why I wrote it. The point is, never miss an opportunity to add value and demonstrate why you are doing something, because your audience is looking for value and if you can help them sift through the content noise, you become valuable xxxxxx